The early conference registration ends tomorrow. Here’s a taste of some of what you dont’ want to miss:

Vigen Guroian: The office of childhood

VG: The Liturgy of Creation: The Melody of Faith

Martin Cothran: The Nature of Nature

MC: Education: Agrarian or industrial

Karen Kern: The Nature of the Moral Imagination and how to cultivate it

James Daniels: The Nature of the Liberal Arts and how to teach them

JD: The Implications of the Incarnation on Teaching

Andrew Pudewa: Teaching Boys and Other Kids who would rather be making forts (what the neurosciences are revealing about the nature of boys and girls and how to teach them)

AP: Nature Deficit Disorder

John Hodges: The Effect of Naturalism on the arts (whatever happened to beauty?)

Leah Lutz: The Nature of Thought: How to simplify and unify your teaching with the mimetic mode

LL: The Canons of Rhetoric; the backbone of the Language arts

In addition, I’ll be opening with a talk that sets the table for the other speakers, but the thought that has been invigorating me and causing me to realize how important this theme of nature is arises from the person of Christ the Logos, the glory of learning. Our Lord really can be the unifying principle of all things because He brings together in one person two natures: the Divine and the Human.

And that means we need to think hard about what human nature is.

Can we transcend it? If we can, then we can transcend God, because God, in Christ, is a man. Not gonna happen!

Is it evil? How can it be if Christ has taken it on. The crucial distinction lies in the difference between a state of nature and the essential nature. We are in a sinful state, but our human nature is essentially good. Long after sin has been completely washed away, “when we’ve been there 10,000 years/bright shining as the sun,” we’ll be nothing but humans who “participate in the Divine Nature.”

This mind-numbing doctrine is brought to you straight from the pages of the New Testament, or I’d never dare say a word of it.

I sincerely hope you can attend this conference. Every day I’m more convinced of its importance.

And don’t forget Marcus and Laura Berquist – winner’s of the Paideia Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Classical Education!!

Register by 4/30 and you’ll save something like $15/person while ensuring a seat (they are filling up pretty quickly now that the school year is winding down, though I’m pretty sure you don’t have to panic yet).

I am excited to announce that Marcus and Laura Berquist have been named the winners of the 2009 Russell Kirk Paideia Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Classical Education. Please follow this link to read more.

If you are a home schooler, how would you like to sit at a table with Laura Berquist, author of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum and collector of The Harp and Laurel Wreath?

Here’s your chance, as Mrs. Berquist will be facilitating a round table discussion for home schoolers at the annual CiRCE conference. You’ll join 11 or 12 other home educators to discuss issues that arise in a Christian classical home. To learn more about the CiRCE conference or to register, visit our web site at www.circeinstitute.org.